


the boy & the beast

by snowpuppies



Category: Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Genre: Dark, M/M, fairytale
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2009-04-04
Updated: 2009-04-04
Packaged: 2017-10-02 07:02:43
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,736
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3814
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/snowpuppies/pseuds/snowpuppies
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Spike has a surprise for Xander, but it's not what he expected. At all. Set in S4 BtVS.</p>
            </blockquote>





	the boy & the beast

**Author's Note:**

> Beta'd by clawofcat.

**the boy and the beast**

 

Xander peered around the largish box he carried, propping it up against the doorframe with his hip so he could rifle through his pockets. He found his keys and, unlocking the door, made his way down the basement stairs.

"Harris?"

"Yeah?" Xander sighed, heavily.

A few months ago, he'd walked in on Spike having his evening jerk—stretched out, stark naked on the bed, pale, long-fingered hand wrapped around his cock, stroking up and down and up and down... Xander, Jr. had been enthralled, and after many, many protests about the inherent badness of boinking the evil undead (and one notable conversation with his mirror about how he would not, could not, might possibly definitely be a little bit gay), he and Spike had ended up fucking and sucking and rutting against every piece of furniture—and a good portion of the floor—in the basement.

Since then, Spike had been unbearably pushy, but…at least the sex was good.

Or mind-boggling.

He thought he might send the Initiative a fruit basket.

"Get your kit off and come'ere. I've got something for you."

In spite of feeling like something the cat peed on, Xander noticed a familiar stirring in his groin. "Yeah, I'm sure you do," he muttered under his breath. He glanced over at the bed, where Spike was sprawled across the sheets, a pair of Xander's sleep pants hanging low on his hips.

"I can't." Xander glared at the box full of books "I've got research to do."

"Sod it." Spike climbed from the bed and crossed the room; the sleep pants wriggled a bit further down his bony hips. "This is what? The third day in a row they've sent you home toting an armload of books and a migraine?"

"Spike, they need this information." Xander pulled a book from the box, only to have it plucked from his grip.

"They can do their own dirty work, Harris. They're taking advantage of you, and you know it."

"Look—" Xander reclaimed his book, holding it against his chest, protectively "—there's not a lot I can do. I can't slay, I can't fight, I can't do magic…but contrary to what my lack of a diploma says, I can read. And if that's all I can do—"

"You'll what? Fall asleep over one of the Watcher's moldy tomes and save the day?" Spike raised an eyebrow.

Xander slumped against the counter, the book falling from his fingers with a thump.

Spike bent and retrieved the volume, placing it gently in the box with the others before sliding a cool hand around Xander's waist.

"You need some rest, 's all I'm saying. You're worth more than they give you credit for, you know."

Xander leaned into Spike's body and allowed himself to be led towards the bed. Determined fingers tugged at his sweater and pulled at his pants and, in a matter of minutes, he was sliding under the sheets.

The mattress dipped a moment later as Spike joined him in the bed, toting a very large, dusty book.

"Uh, I thought you were say-'no'-to-reading guy?"

"This—" Spike settled against the headboard and opened the book "—is not research. 'M gonna read you a fairy tale."

"Really?" Xander blinked. Of all the words he'd expected to come out of Spike's mouth…that had to be the last.

"Yup," Spike answered as Xander wriggled around until he dislodged the sheets wrapped around his legs. "Don't get too comfy, though. There'll be a test—"

"A test? I thought this was supposed to be relaxing?"

"'S a joke, Harris."

"Oh." Spike? Joking? His life was too weird.

"But don't fall asleep—I've got a stiffy needs tending to before you toddle off to Nod."

"When do you not? Is that just a vampire thing, or do you have some sort of condition?"

Spike leered. "It's all me. Tough being so sexy, you know."

"Uh huh." Xander rolled his eyes. "Are you gonna read that thing now, or what?"

"If you'll shut your trap." Spike cleared his voice. "Right, then."

 

> Once upon a time—

"Once upon a time? Really?"

"Of course. It's how all fairy tales begin. Now, do you want me to read this or not?"

Xander's head flopped back to the pillow. Smirking, he adopted a horrible British accent: "Do continue, good fellow."

Spike raised an eyebrow. "Tosser," he muttered under his breath before turning to the book again. "Once upon a _sodding_ time…"

 

> —there was a small village that sat on the edge of a great forest. Typical of the small townships of the time, it was filled with normal folk who lived quietly, never venturing beyond the borders of the village. They went to work, tended their homes and raised their families, and lived perfectly uneventful lives.
> 
> But behind closed doors and shuttered windows, they whispered about the _dark_.
> 
> Now, in this town was a particular boy. The boy was, on the whole, very average. He had floppy, brown hair—

"Floppy? I told you, it's not floppy. It's just got…body."

"Pull the other one, Harris. And who said this story was about you? Sounds like someone's over-identifying."

Xander scowled. "Shut up, Freud."

"Might do the same, if I were you. If you keep interrupting, I'll give you something to occupy your mouth," Spike said, shifting his hips so his cock rubbed against Xander's stomach.

"I could take care of that, now." Xander slid his hand under the sheet to grasp at…nothing. "Why'd you move?"

"Trying to read. Now do as you're told, or you won't sit for a week."

Xander grinned.

Eyes flashing, Spike glanced over the book. "And it won't be from the rogering I give you."

Xander winced and settled back into the mattress.

"Now, where was I? Ah. The boy had floppy, brown hair…"

 

> —and deep, brown eyes, and spent more time daydreaming than on his chores or studies. He was mostly well-mannered, though, and all the townspeople knew his name and would stop to wave if he passed by their homes.
> 
> Unlike the other villagers, however, the boy was very, _very_ curious and was full of questions. Of the baker, he asked: "Why does the yeast make bread rise?" and to the blacksmith he said, "Why does the horse not flee when you hammer nails into his feet?" To each of the villagers he asked such questions!
> 
> His mother, filled with horror, scolded the boy for his irreverent tongue, but his curiosity would not be thwarted.

"Thwarted? Who wrote this bollocks?"

"And I suppose 'bollocks' is the height of literary style?"

"Belt up, Harris," Spike growled.

Xander shivered, but said nothing.

 

> "That curiosity will be the death of you," she remarked, shaking her head sadly. "It killed the cat, you know."
> 
> But the boy knew he was not a cat, and the world was full of so many interesting things to know and so many mysteries to solve.
> 
> And no mystery was greater than that of the great forest.
> 
> The boy had always been drawn to the great forest, with its mighty, looming trees, its thick underbrush and its abundant variety of wildlife. Of course, he'd only seen small, common animals—like rabbits and squirrels—from the edge of the village, but at night, all manner of howls and screeches and cries could be heard echoing from the heart of the darkness.
> 
> He'd heard tell—eavesdropping, behind a cracked door or crouched under a table—of a horrible beast with eyes like giant moons and fangs like knives. It lived in the depths of the forest and, when the moon was hidden and the night was black, it would sneak into a village and snatch unsuspecting children from their beds, dragging them back to its lair to rend them, limb from limb.
> 
> The boy knew this was surely an exaggeration. He knew of no children that had gone missing, and news of a missing child would circulate through the village like wildfire.
> 
> The boy was sure it was just a tale the elders told the youngsters to scare them into obedience.
> 
> But the boy wasn’t scared.
> 
> The boy thought the forest was beautiful. When he said such things to his mother, she scolded him and forbade him to enter the darkness. But a great longing to see and to know was lodged deep in his heart, and the next morning, he entered the forest.
> 
> The boy traipsed through the thick underbrush, touching the aged trees with reverence, beholding the strange wildlife with wonder, until at last he came upon a cave. It was nothing more than a slight rise in the landscape and a great gaping hole in the ground but, to the boy, it was something magical.
> 
> The boy hesitated but a moment at the entrance, perhaps wondering if the stories were true, but his curiosity overwhelmed his caution and he entered the cave.
> 
> And the boy found, therein, not the monster of the villagers' reckoning, but a man, thin and colorless, with eyes like the sky and hair like the sun. And the man spoke, and asked of the world above, and the boy came near and told the man all he had seen. Then the man touched the boy's face with hands like satin, and told a tale of such woe that the boy's heart was pricked, and his eyes welled with tears.
> 
> For the man had been trapped in the cave ever so long, years by his recollection, held by a powerful sorcerer's spell.
> 
> The boy was dismayed at the man's story, and promised on his very soul to free the one who had been held captive for so long. But the man shied away from such suggestion, and begged the boy to leave and never return.
> 
> "I will leave," the boy assured the man, "but one day I will return to free you from your bondage."
> 
> "As you say," replied the man.
> 
> And the boy left the cave, blinking into the afternoon sun, and returned to his village.
> 
> "I have seen the beast," he told the villagers, "and he is not a beast, but a man, trapped by time and circumstance. Help me free him, so that he might return to walk amongst his kind."
> 
> But the villagers did not listen to his plea, and turned away from his cries. And the boy returned to his home, saddened that no one hearkened to his tale.

"Of _course_ they didn't believe him. Why would they?"

Spike raised an eyebrow. "Hitting a nerve, floppy boy?"

Xander scowled, crossing his arms over his chest.

"Thought so." With a smirk, Spike returned his attention to the book.

 

> His mother trembled as he related his journey, grasping his shoulders and shaking him with force. "You must never return. For if you do, the beast will steal your soul and rend you, limb from limb."
> 
> "He is not a beast, but a man," the boy explained.
> 
> Still, the boy's mother would not relent, cautioning him once more to shy away from the beast.
> 
> The boy's heart had been pricked, however, and he could not suffer the idea that the man was so lonely in his cave. So when morning came, he returned to the depths of the forest.
> 
> "You should not have come," the man spoke into the darkness.
> 
> "I could not abandon you to solitude and shadows," the boy replied, coming to sit near where the man was crouched against the wall.
> 
> "The spell is very powerful," said the man.
> 
> "That may be, but I shall see you free nonetheless."
> 
> "As you say," the man replied.
> 
> And so the boy returned, day after day, to visit the man in the shadows. The villagers came to shy away from his approach, no longer stopping to wave or smile at the boy they once knew. The boy's mother cried each night he came home, embracing him and warning him away from the beast, and each morning she cried when she awoke to find him gone.
> 
> And as the days turned to weeks and weeks into months, the boy realized that the pity he had once felt for the man had blossomed into love, and he said as much to the man, kissing his lips.
> 
> "You should not love such a man as me," the man told him.
> 
> "You are more precious to me than all the people of the village I have known; neither man nor woman, nor boy nor girl has touched the depths of my heart as you," the boy whispered into the man's ear, cradling the man's head close to his chest.
> 
> "As you say," the man answered, and returned the boy's kisses with such fervor that the boy fell back into the dust, overwhelmed. The man came to lie over him, and he bared himself to the man's sight, opening his body to the man's hardness.
> 
> As they moved together in the darkness, the man's face began to change; his eyes glowed as the full moon and his teeth lengthened and became sharp like knives. When he saw the beast the man had become, the boy cried out in fear and tried to wrest himself from the beast's grip, but the beast was strong with passion and lust and held the boy in his grasp. As the beast shuddered in ecstasy, he lowered his head and sank his teeth into the boy's neck.
> 
> The boy screamed in agony and fear, but the pain did not last, for the darkness claimed him and he knew no more.

"Whoa. Somebody should have carried a stake."

Spike cocked his head, studying Xander's face in a way that made him distinctly uncomfortable. Finally, he answered—"You'd think so, wouldn't you?"—and began reading again.

 

> The boy woke suddenly, his body aching with use and abuse. The beast was nowhere to be found, so he quickly dressed and escaped the dark cave. He stumbled through the forest, watching fearfully for the strange creatures that crept through the woods, until he reached the edge of his village.
> 
> Shaken from his terrible flight, the boy entered the home of his childhood, whereupon he found his mother on the kitchen floor, rent limb from limb. The boy cried out, gathering his fallen mother to his chest as his eyes filled with tears.
> 
> Stricken with fear, the boy left the house and traveled to the next, and the next and the next, but all the villagers—man, woman and child—were as his mother.
> 
> His heart shattered, the boy returned to his home; the beast was waiting for him, knelt over his mother's body.
> 
> "How could you?" the boy asked, shaking with rage.
> 
> "'You are more precious to me than all the people of the village I have known.' You said these words to me," the beast replied, standing and crossing the distance between them. As he stopped before the boy, the beast melted away, and he once more became the man with eyes like the sky and hair like the sun.
> 
> "You are not a man," the boy proclaimed.
> 
> "And yet you love me," replied the beast.
> 
> "No!" the boy protested, backing away.
> 
> The beast followed. "Your love was proven by the giving of your body and the breaking of the spell. Only true love could break the bonds that held me for centuries in that dark cave."
> 
> The boy shook his head, but knew the beast's words to be true.
> 
> "Now, come, let us leave this town. You are now marked as mine, and I desire a new place of rest." And the beast took hold of the boy's arm, and the boy cried as the beast led him away into the night.

"Wow." Xander shuddered beneath the blanket, glancing up at Spike, who had closed the book and placed it on the table. "That was creepy. Wasn't that creepy?"

"Yes, very creepy." Spike turned to face Xander and slid down to lay flat against the mattress. He slipped a hand under the sheet to grip Xander's hip and roll him on his side. "Now, spread 'em, Harris."

"What?" Propping himself up on an elbow, Xander looked back at Spike, who was reaching for the lube on the bedside table. "After _that_?"

"Yeah. I'm horny. Remember, I told you before we started." Slicking his fingers, he probed between Xander's cheeks to find his opening, petting the wrinkled skin firmly.

"Yeah, but—" Xander shifted away, squeezing his legs together.

Spike grabbed his shoulder and hauled him back across the bed. "Oh, stop the blushing virgin routine, already."

"Spike!" Xander tried to scramble away, but Spike held him down with a hand in the middle of his back. He glanced back over his shoulder; Spike was staring at his ass. He suppressed the urge to press back when a cool hand ran up his thigh, possessively. "Look, I'm not ready."

"Gonna get you ready," Spike replied, voice deep and rumbly as he crawled into the space between Xander's legs. "'Sides, sex is supposed to be life-affirming, yeah?" He pressed his fingers into Xander, spreading the lube around and scissoring them insistently.

Xander winced as the stretch came a little too fast, but soon, Xander, Jr. was responding, slowly filling with blood where it was trapped against the mattress.

Spike pulled his fingers out with a pop and gave Xander's cheek a slap. "On your knees, then."

Xander grumbled as he was hauled to his knees, his head pillowed on his forearms that he'd braced against the mattress, his cock, heavy and full, dangling between his legs. He yelled a moment later as Spike slid smoothly inside. "Ouch! Be careful—I still have to use that, you know!"

"Deep breaths, Harris." Spike grinned, and began to rock into the body beneath, his balls slapping against Xander's thighs with each thrust.

"You're such a—Oh, right there. There, dammit!—bastard, sometimes, Spike."

Spike grunted, slamming his forward as his fingers dug into Xander's hips. "Yeah, and you're a—Oh, sodding hell!—prince all the time." Leaning forward, he wrapped an arm around Xander's chest and pulled him upright.

Xander leaned against the smooth, cool body, his head lolling on Spike's shoulder as sparks of pleasure radiated up his spine and through his limbs, tingling in his fingers and toes.

"Wank yourself, Harris." Spike growled, gnawing with human teeth along the curve of Xander's shoulder, the arch of his neck.

"'Kay. Um, Spike? No biting, remember?" he said, even as he reached for his aching prick and began a quick pull, swiping a thumb across the head on the upstrokes.

Spike snorted and nipped at the tendon protruding from Xander's neck. "Vampire, aren't I?" Reaching across Xander's broad chest, Spike found a distended nipple and squeezed. "'Sides, I can't _really_ bite, can I?"

"I guess—" Xander's reply was interrupted by the squeak of the bedsprings as they fell to the mattress in a tangle of limbs.

Growling, Spike jerked Xander's arms backwards, pinning them in the small of his back as he continued slamming into Xander's body.

Face-down in his own pillow, Xander thrashed against the restraint, trying to find some air. He yelled into the soft material, but his words were garbled and Spike was too busy splitting him in two to answer.

He felt hot, then cold, as the world began to slowly fade into nothingness, sound and sensation growing fainter…

…only to jerk back into existence when a calloused hand wrapped around his dick.

Lungs screaming, he bucked under Spike's weight just as he was pulled away from the pillow and blunt teeth sank deeply into his shoulder.

Gratefully sucking air into his lungs, he came, his body jerking and shuddering in pleasure before he fell to the mattress, gasping and shivering and panting.

A moment later, the bed shook as another body fell next to him and an arm draped over his waist.

"Been needing that for days, Harris."

"You—" Xander managed, between pants "—you nearly killed me!" Feebly, he tried to push Spike's arm away, but sagged back against the bed.

"Don't get your knickers in a twist, boy. 'M a vampire—can hear every beat of your little heart." Spike traced the jutting bone of Xander's hip gently. "'Sides, you came like a train, didn't you?"

Xander blinked, brow furrowed. It had been utterly spectacular in a fireworks-behind-the-eyelids sort of way.

"Yeah. It was sorta…"

"Brilliant?"

"Uh huh."

"Thought so. Relax a bit, Harris, you're right as rain. And it's not like I can hurt you."

"Right." _The chip_. Xander really loved that little piece of technology.

After several moments, his heart rate slowed and the post-orgasmic haze began to steal over his body. Grunting, he rolled onto his back to stare at the ceiling.

"So what'd you think of the story?"

"Story?" Xander's brain was still a bit muddled, but he was slowly remembering. "Oh, yeah. Creepy as hell. And was that guy stupid, or what?"

Spike slid across the bed to press himself against Xander's side, stroking the flat, moist chest with his fingers as he blew gently against Xander's ear. "He was a bit thick, I suppose."

"Uh huh…" Xander's eyes grew heavy as exhaustion swept through his body.

"So what's the moral, then?"

"The wha?"

"The moral of the story. Stories like this always have a moral, some lesson to teach the kiddies about how to behave."

"Oh. Uhm…curiosity killed the cat?"

"That's one, yeah." Spike wrapped an arm around Xander's middle, pulling him closer until they were spooned together, Spike's body blessedly cool to his fevered, sweaty flesh. "But you're not a cat."

"No. I'm a boy. A man. A Xander-shaped man."

"That you are, pet. So what's the _real_ moral?"

Xander yawned. "Uh…listen to your mother?"

Spike nodded, eyes squinting in amusement. "That'll do."

"'Kay." Xander closed his eyes.

"Sleep well, Harris."

"Like a log."

Spike watched as Xander squirmed, arranging his arms and legs until they were comfortable.

"Hey, Spike?"

"Hmm?"

"Good thing for you my mom doesn't give a shit," Xander mumbled into the quiet.

Spike pulled the warm body close, pressing a soft kiss against the nape of Xander's neck, watching as his breathing evened and slumber took him for the night.

He smirked, eyes shining like moons, fangs sharp as knives glinting in the soft light.

"As you say, Harris. As you say."

 

 

 

_FIN_.[](http://www.statcounter.com/)

 

Originially Archived [here](http://snowpuppies.livejournal.com/217420.html).


End file.
